Sociobiology
and
Social Intelligence
Recent
findings by primate and human ethologists suggest
that human intelligence and social behavior can be
understood in a biological framework.
In
contrast to traditional social theories, such a biological
analysis indicates that in the course of hominid evolution
biobehavioral requirements have given rise to human
intelligence in interaction with human social behavior.
Assuming
humans to be "nature's psychologists", one
may speculate that empathy and self consciousness
reinforced the complexity and sophistication of social
interaction in human societies, thus leading to selection
pressures unknown in other species. This is basically
the reason why "the environment of (wo)man is
(wo)man".
A
number of disciplines and methods of research are
needed to elucidate the emergence of sociability in
phylogeny and ontogeny. These include evolutionary,
developmental and social psychology, sociology, ethology,
human biology, anthropology, communication studies,
mother-child relation, narrative studies, dramatology,
psychiatry, systemic therapy, political philosophy
and epistemology.
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